The Shopinas.com Lady Clickers immediately went to work as soon as the 2015 Philippine Superliga All-Filipino Conference opened. The team convincingly won their first two games by easily shredding the Mane ‘n Tail Lady Stallions in four sets, and the Philips Gold Lady Slammers in straight sets.
With loads of momentum gained from those wins, Shopinas’ bid for a huge winning streak. However, this came to a screeching halt as it fell to the rampaging Foton Toradoes and the high-octane Petron Blaze Spikers.
In addition, the Lady Clickers easily had the game in hand after notching a 2-0 lead over Petron, but the Blaze Spikers suddenly got all of its cylinders clicking which eventually ended in a massive 3-2 comeback.
Cha Cruz once again led the Lady Clickers against Petron as she sang to the tune of 17 points and 8 digs while Stephanie Mercado followed up with 12 points and 3 blocks. In Petron’s side, Dindin Santiago-Manabat continued her tour de force by dropping 23 points and one block.
Moments after emerging from the team’s dugout, Shopinas assistant coach Benson Bocboc, who called the shots for the game with head coach Ramil De Jesus out due to a dental surgery, gave his insight on the team’s unexpected collapse.
“Coming into the game, hindi namin expected na ganoon ang lalaruin ng Petron tapos we took advantage sa mga errors nila,” Bocboc shared to Tiebreaker Times. “We got the first two sets pero they [Petron] came back sa third set, fourth and fifth.”
In their wins, Shopinas led by an average of 5 points per set won while they trailed by an average of 7 points per set in their losses. Heading over to their defense, the Lady Clickers averaged norms of 9 blocks and 30 digs per game in wins compared to their 8 blocks and 31 digs per game average in defeats.
Also, Benson indicated the team’s week-long layoff, due to the annual Holy Week, left the team a little bit rusty since they had minimal time to have training sessions together.
“Basically the team is medyo raw [since] galing sa [Holy Week] break and we did not have practice since our last game [against Foton],” Bocboc added. “[But] having this five sets [match] with Petron, I think it is not bad for us. Iyon lang, kailangan lang namin masustain kapag next time namin na makalaban.”
All hope isn’t lost yet as the team, even with a 2-2 record, has a lot of time to turn things around.
“Ngayon medyo mahaba naman ang laban, pagdating sa dulo doon pa rin magkakatalo [sa performance ng bawat team],” Bocboc ended. “We just need to find ourselves together and eventually a winning streak will follow.”
